AIREBOROUGH CIVIC SOCIETY COMMUNITY MEETING – Tuesday 28th March, 7.30pm at Rawdon Library

Agenda for Meeting on Tuesday, 28th March 2023, 7.30pm, at Rawdon Community Library
1. 1.1 Apologies
1.2 Minutes & Matters Arising from Meeting Tuesday 31st January 2023.
1.3 Open Forum: Attendees can raise any local issues/concerns not on Agenda.
2. Finance & Membership: Position of Treasurer – vacancy.
3. Planning Applications: You can find planning applications in the press or using the link below and then using the planning map – which highlights current applications: Find Leeds City Council Planning website, go to Public Access site or Use this link: http://planningapplications.leeds.gov.uk/publicaccess/tdc/DcApplication/application_searchform.asp
New Applications:
Old Applications:
22/06758/FU | Alterations to form new shop front | 65 High Street Yeadon Leeds LS19 7SP This is the former Victorian shopfront that was replaced last year without planning permission and was subject to enforcement measures. The owner is trying to avoid the required replacement by making a new application. Refused 25th November 2022.
22/06130/FU | Change of use and alterations to clock tower to form one residential unit | Clock Tower High Royds Fold Menston Leeds LS29 6GW
22/06242/FU | Demolition of existing buildings and erection of a food store with associated access, parking, servicing area and landscaping | Haworth Lane Yeadon Leeds LS19 This is the new Lidl store proposal. Approved 24.3.23
7EN3.2 Proposal to install a communications base station (telecomms mast) on a piece of land between the Sainsbury’s at the top of Apperley Lane and the JCT roundabout.
Hawksworth Quarry Odda Lane Hawksworth 21/07664 Leeds LS20 8NZ Description Variation of condition numbers 18 and 20 of planning permission 28/96/93/FU to allow for the recycling of waste as part of the quarry restoration scheme and the increase of the amount of waste to be stored on site from 500 tonnes to 30,000 tonnes. The Planning Inspectorate has received the above appeal against the refusal on 31st Mar. 2022.

4. Micklefield House update.

5. Leeds Local Plan 2040 consultation

6. Congestion, Pollution & Transport
6.1 Imagine an Excellent Bus Service for Leeds – Leeds Civic Trust Competition.
6.2 Bus Service 966 update
6.3 F.O.I. Request on Cycle track use
6.4 Apperley Lane Pedestrian Crossing & Park Road Concerns
6.5 Government Pothole money for Leeds
6.6 SCOOT system of traffic control on A65
7. Spring Litter Pick: Is anyone able to take this on?
8. Reports & Information:
8.1 Police Community Meeting
8.2 Chair’s meeting with MP Stuart Andrew
8.3 Councillor News
9. A.O.B.

10. Date of next meetings: All 7.30pm at Rawdon Community Library:
NB THURSDAY The Miracle of Bird Migration
27 April Linda Jenkinson, founder of Start Birding Leeds, gives a fascinating talk on bird migration at this time of year.
Tuesday 30th May 2023 Community Meeting (all welcome) – to discuss issues of local interest.

Community Meeting, Tuesday 28th March, 7.30pm, Rawdon Library

Residents of Guiseley, Rawdon & Yeadon are invited to come to Aireborough Civic Society’s next Community Meeting to discuss and help plan how the community can make our area a better place to live.

Hear what Aireborough Civic Society has achieved.
Help plan our campaigns for 2023.

The Civic Society consists of volunteers who want to make a positive difference to our environment.

Come along to our meeting on 28th March to Rawdon Library, find out what we do and bring your own ideas and concerns. We hope to have a Leeds City Councillor attending our meeting to update members and give advice.

There is much to do – we are concerned about:
Protecting our Green Belt – a new Core Strategy is being consulted on now!
Our Conservation Areas & Heritage buildings – & their protection,
Congestion on local roads, disruption from road works and parking problems,
Litter spoiling our community
Improving local shopping areas
Planting flowers to make our centres more attractive
Improving Local Bus Services,
Planning matters: – what is happening and suggesting improvements?
Any other local matters.

At this time of the year LITTER seems to be a big problem and we plan to have a CLEAN UP morning early in April. Please let us know of any parts of Aireborough that would benefit: e-mail: [email protected]. Harrogate Road (A658) near the airport seems bad at the moment.

The Society works with Aireborough Neighbourhood Forum and
is part of the national organisation, Civic Voice. ACS is also affiliated to Leeds Civic Trust & the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE).

A Chocolatier Visits Us: Tuesday 28th February 2023, 7.30pm at Rawdon Community Library.

Aireborough Civic Society is pleased to welcome Yorkshire Chocolatier, Sarah Tomkinson, to speak at its next meeting on Tuesday 28th February 2023, 7.30pm at Rawdon Community Library.
Sarah is a self-confessed chocaholic, so much so that 10 years ago, she started up her own small business in Cleckheaton as a chocolatier. She enjoys building her unique range of new flavours and styles to tempt every pallet including gluten and peanut free ranges. She will be sharing her story on becoming a chocolatier and you can sample and buy some of her tempting products on the evening.
Sarah’s visit is especially good timing with both Mother’s Day & Easter taking place in the next few weeks.
Admission: ACS Members FREE
Non-ACS Members £4.00
NB: Join ACS on the night for £10 annual membership, which includes 5 talks alternating with 5 community meetings.
A

Votes for Women ACS talk next Tuesday at Rawdon Library Tues 26th April, 7.30pm

The second Aireborough Civic Society talk of 2022 takes place next Tuesday 26th April, 7.30pm at Rawdon Library.

Eric Jackson, J.P. will be giving a talk about the Suffragettes and the Achievement of Votes for Women in 1928.  

Eric’s talk starts with the iconic death of Emily Wilding Davison under the hooves of the King’s horse at the 1913 Epsom Derby.  He will also cover the establishment of the first societies advocating women’s suffrage.

  • Campaigns of violence & civil disobedience
  • Force feeding of Hunger strikers
  • Estelle Silvia Pankhurst’s breakaway movement in East London
By chance the Local Elections are taking place just 9 days later on the 5th May, so this is an extremely topical talk!   Our next Community Meeting will take place on Tuesday 31st May when Local Issues will be discussed.  As in March we hope to invite a local councillor to that meeting.

Friday Night Walks List for 2022

The Friday evening walks were started in 1993 by the late Albert Shutt, then Chairman of the Aireborough Civic Society. His plan was to explore the Aireborough area, visiting places even local residents hadn’t been to, and ensuring footpaths were kept in use.
Unless stated the walks are normally between 3 and 4 miles in length. The pace is as fast as the slowest walker.
As the walks cover a variety of terrain, sturdy footwear is strongly advised, along with weatherproof clothing. Most of the walks involve gradients, hills and stiles.

Airport Bus Route Changes – Press Release

Metro has called the new routes ‘a compromise’.   Yeadon Centre will still be served but the 747 will no longer serve Kirk Lane, the A65 and Westfield, but will use Henshaw Lane.  The 737 will serve Kirk Lane, but miss out Queensway.  At a time when Leeds has a target to double bus passengers, taking services away from the 2 biggest housing estates in the area seems to be a serious mistake. Some people will have a much increased distance to walk.  Metro says that passengers from these estates will just have to walk another 10 minutes!   Not good if you have luggage for the airport, bags of shopping, are elderly, or it is dark or wet.   Not good if you work at the airport, travel to Bradford or Harrogate or Yeadon Centre.

We think these changes are ill-thought out, will inconvenience local people and lose passengers while chasing a vague aim of getting more passengers to use buses from Bradford to the Airport. There is already a perfectly good 30 minute service from Bradford Interchange using the 737 & 747.

What Are the Claimed Benefits?

The Airport say that a slightly shorter journey from Bradford on the 747 will attract bus passengers – but the journey only takes 30 mins now – and then you must wait at LBA for at least 2 hours for your flight.   How many people will now choose to use a bus if it is 5 mins quicker?   In any case most train users will use the 757 from Leeds. They have also failed to notice that the new 737 route will be less direct than now.   Most flights from LBA are very early in the morning or late in the day, so there won’t be any bus passengers for the airport for most of the day, when locals could be using these buses.

Bradford Council wants the bus to stop at Apperley Bridge Station, but that won’t attract any passengers as it is an hourly bus service.  We have not been told the reasons for this idea.   It is almost impossible to timetable an hourly service to connect with the train service to Leeds or Bradford – and it would actually take longer and cost much more than staying on the bus.

We think these changes make no sense, will lose passengers and are ill-thought out.    It is no surprise that fewer people are using our buses when such changes are made.  Unfortunately this means more cars, more congestion, slower journeys and more pollution.

The Losers:

Local people travelling to:

The Airport, Yeadon Centre, Bradford, Harrogate for work, shopping, surgeries.   People with mobility issues.

The Winners: NONE

Supposedly those going to the airport from Bradford and wanting to save 5 minutes journey time!   But not those using the 737!

Those catching a bus to Apperley Bridge Station and taking a train to Leeds or Bradford – even though it will take longer and cost more than using a bus for the whole journey!

The Changes Make No Sense

We have complained to Metro about the changes and also asked that they should be at least delayed because of the current Covid crisis with hardly any passengers using the airport.  We have received no response. Making these changes NOW seems inconsiderate and ridiculous.

It is also very disappointing that Leeds Bradford Airport have not considered the needs of local people, including their own employees when insisting on these changes. They claim to be good neighbours – not on this evidence!

Also worrying is that there are currently no timetables at bus stops, so how are passengers to know about the changes?

Another unhelpful change for those using public transport are current plans to remove all the bus stops in front of Leeds City Station so that those going to the Airport using the 757 Airport bus will have to walk to the Wellington Street bus stop – luggage and all!  What are Metro thinking of?